Posts Tagged «windows phone»

Microsoft has announced that the Nokia Lumia brand is dead; there will be no more Nokia-branded Windows Phones. Instead, we’ll now get Microsoft Lumia devices. It will be interesting to see how the Lumia range does, now that it has been fully excised from Nokia. Microsoft’s (MSFT) latest Q1 2015 earnings, released yesterday, highlight that sales of Lumia devices were only slightly up over the last year — and I doubt that the transition to Microsoft branding will help matters.

When Microsoft released the Windows 10 Technical Preview at the start of October, it promised that we’d get lots of rapid updates as it fixes bugs and rolls out new features — and it wasn’t lying! Yesterday, just three weeks after the initial Technical Preview release, Microsoft rolled out the first major update. There are three major new features in Windows 10 build 9841 — a notification tray, Battery Sense, and Data Sense. In my eyes, though, the most important aspect was that it was really easy to install the new build; you just click a button. With Windows 10, has Microsoft finally tackled the abomination that is the Windows upgrade process?

Microsoft will launch its first foray into modern wearable computing in the next few weeks, according to ‘sources close to the project.’ Depending on which source you listen to, Microsoft’s wearable is either a smartwatch with fitness band functionality, or a fitness band with limited smartwatch capabilities. Can Microsoft’s smartwatch succeed where the Kin, Zune, and Surface have failed before it?

Microsoft has sent out the official press invites for an event on September 30, where we are almost certain that Windows 9 (codenamed Threshold) will be unveiled. The Windows 9 Technical Preview should be handed out to event attendees, and should also be available online on September 30 or very soon after.

Microsoft has announced that it will acquire the Minecraft franchise, and its Swedish developer Mojang, for $2.5 billion. Microsoft asserts that it ‘plans’ to continue distributing Minecraft across PC, Xbox, PlayStation, iOS, and Android, but obviously the game’s cross-platform future is called into question by this acquisition. Markus ‘Notch’ Persson, and Mojang’s other two founders, will not be staying with Mojang/Microsoft and will “move on to start new projects.”

There is an increasing amount of evidence that Microsoft is preparing to drop all of its different brands of Windows — Windows Phone, Windows 8, Windows 9, Windows RT — and simply call them all Windows. The idea would be that, in the mind of the consumer, Windows is just Windows, and that all of these different names and flavors are just confusing. Getting rid of all that complexity and returning to the old way — where Windows is synonymous with personal computing — would certainly be a coup for Microsoft.

Microsoft is planning to release a preview build of Windows 9 at a special press event on September 30, according to sources familiar with Microsoft’s plans. It’s still unclear exactly how many of Windows 9’s hotly anticipated features will actually make it into the September 30 release — but hopefully we’ll at least see the resurrected Start menu and Metro apps running on the Desktop. We wouldn’t be surprised if you have to wait a little longer for the consumer preview of Windows 9 before you get to play with your new Cortana digital assistant, however.

Microsoft’s Satya Nadella has confirmed that the next version of Windows, probably Windows 9, will unify the Windows, Windows Phone, and Xbox operating systems into ‘one single converged operating system.’ Microsoft had previously made some moves towards unification with Universal Windows Apps that run across all three platforms, but this new version of Windows will go a lot further: ‘This means [we'll have] one operating system that covers all screen sizes.’

Microsoft has announced that it will fire around 18,000 employees over the next year, or almost 15% of its global workforce of 127,000. The bulk of the layoffs — 12,500 — will be former Nokia employees who are no longer needed after the acquisition. The mass job-cut is occurring for two key reasons: There is a lot of ‘synergy and strategic alignment’ to be made following Microsoft’s acquisition of Nokia — and, of course, tons of space must be made so that Nadella can successfully reorient the company towards his Mobile And Cloud vision.

Microsoft’s new CEO, just 12 months after Steve Ballmer declared that Microsoft was a “devices and services” company, is changing the behemoth’s course yet again. Starting from fiscal year (FY) 2015 — i.e. today — Microsoft is now all about mobile and cloud. In a letter that was emailed to Microsoft employees today, Nadella gushes forth with incredibly bold statements that try to define what he wants the company to be, and attempts to outline the extraordinary measures that must now be undertaken to actually get the company there.

Use of this site is governed by our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Copyright 1996-2015 Ziff Davis, LLC.PCMag Digital Group All Rights Reserved. ExtremeTech is a registered trademark of Ziff Davis, LLC. Reproduction in whole or in part in any form or medium without express written permission of Ziff Davis, LLC. is prohibited.